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Kel Richards'
Ozwords

Kel Richards' OzwordsKel Richards' OzwordsKel Richards' Ozwords

The Ozword of the Day: "Jargon”

Every area of life has its own ‘jargon.’ 

This word came into English in the late 1300s from a French source word that meant ‘meaningless chatter or noise.’ 

It was applied, in those ancient times, to the twittering of flocks of birds. 

But since the mid-1600s ‘jargon’, says the Oxford, has been ‘applied contemptuously to any mode of speech abounding in unfamiliar terms, or peculiar to a particular set of persons, as the language of scholars or philosophers, the terminology of a science or art, or the cant of a class, sect, trade, or profession.’ 

And the sort of ‘jargon that is bane of our lives these days is corporate ‘jargon’—which spreads from the management suite to politics and the media and annoys us all. 

A list compiled by the great British wordsmith Suzie Dent includes the following examples:


Sunsetting—fixing an end date for something

Grandfathering—keeping things in place for now but changing it all in the future.

Taking a haircut—accepting a loss without being wiped out.

Fiscal headroom—we think have enough money.

Key takeaway—no, not food, but the message you are supposed to remember.

Polycrisis—lots of things going wrong at once.

EOD—the time when this needs to be finished: End Of the Day.

Whiteboarding—putting something up for discussion by the group.

Deficit—that (relatively) small amount of money we’ve overspent this year.

Debt—the massive amount of money we owe because of years of borrowing.


And so on. 

Suzie Dent says the whole point is that ‘jargon’ makes an utterance clear to those in the inner circle but unclear to everyone else. 

The people in positions of leadership (in the political and corporate worlds) often don’t want us (the mob, the great unwashed) to understand. 

We should just take their (jargon filled) word for that everything is going okay. 

\Yeah, right!


Tonight I'll join John Stanley for 'The Word Clinic' on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Tapt Radio Network -- right after the 10pm news. This is the chance for you to take part, either on the talkback line or by texting, so join us tonight.


TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER SCROLL FURTHER DOWN THIS PAGE >>>>>>


BOOKS:


*  My latest book is called Pray Like This. To look at prayer I do what I do in these Ozword columns: I go through the most famous prayer in the world (The Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father) and unpack it word by word—each chapter being a short word-study on a key word in that prayer. There is a total of 21 words studies in all. To find out more, here’s a link to the publisher’s website (where you can buy a copy if you wish): Pray Like This – matthiasmedia.com.au 


* My book is Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries -- containing 50 new stories I have written about the great detective. You can find it on Amazon. Just go to Amazon and type in Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries in the search panel. Or use this link:  h  Amazon.com.au : Sherlock Holmes 5-Minute Mysteries Kel Richards 


* My book "Defending the Gospel" is now in a second, fully revised, edition. You can find it here:  Defending the Gospel – matthiasmedia.com.au 


* If you're looking for my recent book "Flash Jim" you'll find it here --  Flash Jim, The astonis

hing story of the convict fraudster who wrote Australia's first dictionary by Kel Richards | 9781460759769 | Booktopia 


* You can find all Kel's books currently in print here --  Booktopia Search Results for 'kel richards'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.  

 

* And also here --   Amazon.com.au : Kel Richards 


* And you'll find more here --  Search: 4 results found for "Kel Richards" – matthiasmedia.com.au 


* Many of Kel's out of print books can be found at ABE Books --  Kel Richards - AbeBooks explaining words explain the term


BY THE WAY...


If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic


The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.

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THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE

Kel Richards has been reporting on the Australian language for more than 30 years, and is the author of ten books about words and language. He has been described in one newspaper article as "the wordsmith to the nation." Kel is a veteran Australian author, journalist and broadcaster. In a long and distinguished career he has hosted ABC radio's flagship daily current affairs show "AM" and his own talkback shows on commercial radio. For 12 years Kel wrote and presented the popular daily feature "Word Watch" on ABC NewsRadio. For several years Kel was a member of the Standing Committee on Spoken English (SCOSE) at the ABC. Kel presents the weekly "Words Matter" segment on Peta Credlin's program on Sky News, he writes the "Language" column for The Spectator Australia and the "Ozwords" and "Placenames" columns for Australian Geographic. Kel joins John Stanley on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Nine Radio Network each week for "The Word Clinic."

Ozwords appears in every issue of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC.

Got a question about Aussie words?

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